Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Defects of respiratory chain complexes were considered as possible pathogenetic mechanisms in Parkinson's disease (PD). Changes of cytochrome c oxidase (COX) in four different nuclei of the substantia nigra of 8 PD cases and 10 age-matched controls were investigated by means of morphometry and immunohistochemistry. Pigmented neurons with COX defects were randomly distributed within the the four nuclei of PD cases, but only in the posterolateral nucleus was the numerical density of pigmented neurons with COX defects significantly increased compared with controls. The numerical density of pigmented neurons without COX defects was significantly reduced in the anteromedial, anterointermediolateral, and posterolateral nuclei in PD. The cell size of pigmented neurons with and without COX defects was significantly diminished in the anteromedial and posterolateral nuclei of PD cases. It is suggested that complex IV defects in nigral neurons are most probably a result of accelerated aging, but are least likely to be a primary aspect of the pathogenetic processes occurring in PD.
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PMID:Defects of cytochrome c oxidase in the substantia nigra of Parkinson's disease: and immunohistochemical and morphometric study. 899 48

A cDNA library of substantia nigra pars compacta from a patient with Parkinson's disease (PD) was differentially screened with probes of normal and parkinsonian substantia nigra enriched in neuronal transcripts. Fifty-eight clones were isolated; 39 were subunits of mitochondrial respiratory complexes I and IV. Parallel screening of a cDNA library derived from normal substantia nigra confirmed differential representation of the transcripts in the substantia nigra pars compacta. In situ hybridization in postmortem brain from parkinsonian and control subjects, with representative complex I and complex IV probes, showed increased labeling, at the cellular level, of the complex I subunit ND1 in neurons of the lateral substantia nigra, where cell death is greatest in PD, but decreased labeling in the medial substantia nigra where fewer cells die. Expression of a complex IV subunit, COXI, increased, however, in both parts of the structure. Increased expression of ND1 and COXI was also observed in nerve growth factor-differentiated PC12 cells undergoing apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha, suggesting that the differential regulation of certain mitochondrial mRNAs may be associated with this form of cell death. This in vitro model of apoptosis is potentially relevant to the death of dopaminergic neurons in PD, because these cells express the tumor necrosis factor-alpha receptor, and neighboring microglial cells in patients synthesize the cytokine.
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PMID:Is differential regulation of mitochondrial transcripts in Parkinson's disease related to apoptosis? 910 38

In Parkinson's disease, the functional architecture of the basal ganglia nuclei undergoes profound alterations, one of the most important of which is overactivity of the basal ganglia output nuclei. This phenomenon seems to be intimately related to pathological overactivity of the subthalamic nucleus, which directly modulates the basal ganglia output through its glutamatergic projections. In this study, we investigated the effects of unilateral subthalamic nucleus lesions on the activities of succinate dehydrogenase and cytochrome oxidase, two markers of neuronal activity, in rats with prior unilateral lesions of the nigrostriatal tract. We also explored the effect of subthalamic nucleus lesions on the rotational response to systemic apomorphine. Rats with unilateral lesions of the nigrostriatal tract showed ipsilateral increases in enzyme activity in the basal ganglia output nuclei, entopeduncular nucleus and substantia nigra pars reticulata. Selective subthalamic nucleus destruction completely reversed this phenomenon. In addition, subthalamic nucleus lesions abolished the rotational response to apomorphine. These results confirm that overactivity of the subthalamic nucleus plays a pivotal role in the functional alterations of basal ganglia associated with Parkinson's disease. They also shed further light on the neural mechanisms through which manipulations of subthalamic activity can ameliorate Parkinson's disease symptoms.
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PMID:Subthalamic ablation reverses changes in basal ganglia oxidative metabolism and motor response to apomorphine induced by nigrostriatal lesion in rats. 924 Mar 98

There is increasing evidence that a defect of the mitochondrial respiratory chain is implicated in the development of Parkinson disease. Decreased complex I activity of the mitochondrial respiratory chain has been reported in platelets, muscle, and brain of patients with Parkinson disease. Extrapyramidal symptoms (e.g. parkinsonism and dystonic reactions) are major limiting side effects of neuroleptics. Experimental evidence suggests that neuroleptics inhibit complex I in rat brain. There has not been a study of the effects of neuroleptics in human tissue, however. We therefore analyzed the activities of complexes I + III, complexes II + III, succinate dehydrogenase, complex IV (cytochrome c oxidase), and of citrate synthase in normal human brain cortex after the addition of haloperidol and chlorpromazine and the atypical neuroleptics risperidone, zotepine, and clozapine. Activity of complex I was progressively inhibited by all neuroleptics. Half-maximal inhibition (IC50) was 0.1 mM for haloperidol, 0.4 mM for chlorpromazine, and 0.5 mM for risperidone and zotepine. Clozapine had no effect on enzyme activity at concentrations up to 0.5 mM, followed by a slow decline with a maximum inhibition of 70% at 10 mM. IC50 was at about 2.5 mM. Thus, the concentration of clozapine needed to cause 50% inhibition of the activity of complexes I and III was about 5 times that of zotepine and risperidone, about 6 times that of chlorpromazine, and 25 times that of haloperidol. The inhibition thus paralleled the incidence of extrapyramidal effects caused by the different neuroleptics as they are known from numerous clinical studies. Our data support the hypothesis that neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal side effects may be due to inhibition of the mitochondrial respiratory chain.
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PMID:Inhibition of complex I by neuroleptics in normal human brain cortex parallels the extrapyramidal toxicity of neuroleptics. 930 97

Mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) function is selectively reduced in multiple tissues, including brain, from patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The ETC defects are specific to each illness, involve complex I in PD and complex IV in AD, are transferable with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and lead to increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mtDNA-deficient clonal neuronal cells hybridized with mtDNA ('cybrids') from PD or AD patients. C57BL/6 mice treated with MPTP developed elevated tissue hydroxyl radical ('OH) levels in striatum and ventral midbrain but not cerebellum. In brain microdialysis in awake rats, striatal 'OH output increased 3-5-fold after infusion of methylpyridinium ion (MPP+), a complex I inhibitor, or sodium azide, a complex IV inhibitor. Elevated 'OH after MPP+ was blocked stereospecifically by infusion of the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor nitro-L-arginine or by the NMDA channel blocker MK801. Neither NOS inhibition nor NMDA blockade altered azide-induced 'OH production. ETC inhibition in vivo increases production of toxic 'OH, but the underlying mechanisms vary as a function of which ETC complex is inhibited. These results support the concept of developing oxygen free radical scavengers for both AD and PD and further suggest that inhibition of NOS and blockade of NMDA receptor function may alter progression of idiopathic PD.
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PMID:Mitochondrial toxins in models of neurodegenerative diseases. I: In vivo brain hydroxyl radical production during systemic MPTP treatment or following microdialysis infusion of methylpyridinium or azide ions. 931 90

A rapid method (about 1.5 h) for the isolation of intact functional mitochondria from neurons and astrocytes in primary culture is described. Mitochondria isolated by this method are metabolically active and tightly coupled as shown by respiratory control ratio values, which were about 4 with glutamate-malate as substrate. The activities of marker enzymes revealed the occurrence of a low degree of cytosolic (5%) or synaptosomal (5.5%) contamination in the mitochondrial fractions. In addition, the activity of citrate synthase was increased by 4 fold in both neuronal and astrocytic mitochondria with respect to values found in cell homogenates. These results confirm that the method affords mitochondrial preparations from cultured brain cells at suitable levels of purity and enrichment for the study of their mitochondrial function. Since mitochondrial damage has been associated with the pathogenesis of certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases (P. Chagnon, C. Betard, Y. Robitaille, A. Cholette, D. Gauvreau, Distribution of brain cytochrome oxidase activity in various neurodegenerative disease, Neuroreport 6 (1995) 711-715 [6]; S.J. Kish, C. Bergeron, A. Rajput, S. Dozic, F. Mastrogiacomo, L. Chang, J.M. Wilson, L.M. DiStefano, J.N. Nobrega, Brain cytochrome oxidase in Alzheimer's disease, J. Neurochem. 59 (1992) 776-779 [10]; A.H.V. Schapira, J.M. Cooper, D. Dexter, J.B. Clark, P. Jenner, C.D. Marsden, Mitochondrial complex I deficiency in Parkinson's disease, J. Neurochem. 54 (1990) 823-827 [15]), the method described here shed light on the possible susceptibility of neuronal or astrocytic mitochondria to deleterious effects of these diseases.
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PMID:A rapid method for the isolation of metabolically active mitochondria from rat neurons and astrocytes in primary culture. 950 34

Mitochondria play a critical role in cellular energy metabolism. The identification of a respiratory chain defect in Parkinson's disease (PD) provides not only a direct link with toxin models of parkinsonism but also insight into the mechanisms involved in etiology and pathogenesis. The presence of the complex I deficiency in PD substantia nigra and platelets suggests the involvement of a systemic cause. Genomic transplantation studies have been undertaken that involve the transfer to a novel nuclear background of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from PD patients with a complex I defect, followed by both mixed and clonal expansion of the resulting cybrids. The mixed cybrids with the PD mtDNA expressed the complex I defect present in the original PD donor platelets. Clonal expansion of one such mixed cybrid culture produced a spectrum of clones with complex I and complex IV activities, ranging from severe deficiency to normal range, a pattern typical of a heteroplasmic mtDNA mutation. Histochemical, immunohistochemical, and functional assessments of delta psi(m) all showed a pattern in the PD clones typical of that produced by a mtDNA mutation. Patients with focal dystonia and a platelet complex I defect were used as disease controls for the cybrid studies. The mitochondrial abnormality was eradicated by transfer of dystonia mtDNA to a control nuclear background in both mixed and clonal cybrids, with no evidence of clonal heterogeneity. These results help to validate our findings in the PD patients and suggest that the complex I deficiency in dystonia is not due to an abnormality of mtDNA. We hypothesize that the mtDNA defect alone may be the cause of PD in a proportion of patients and may contribute to pathogenesis in others. Identification of the mtDNA genotype responsible for PD may allow the testing of neuroprotective strategies in appropriate patients.
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PMID:Mitochondria in the etiology and pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. 974 79

Respiratory chain dysfunction has been identified in several neurodegenerative disorders. In Friedreich's ataxia (FA) and Huntington's disease (HD), where the respective mutations are in nuclear genes encoding non-respiratory chain mitochondrial proteins, the defects in oxidative phosphorylation are clearly secondary. In Parkinson's disease (PD) the situation is less clear, with some evidence for a primary role of mitochondrial DNA in at least a proportion of patients. The pattern of the respiratory chain defect may provide some clue to its cause; in PD there appears to be a selective complex I deficiency; in HD and FA the deficiencies are most severe in complex II/III with a less severe defect in complex IV. Aconitase activity in HD and FA is severely decreased in brain and muscle, respectively, but appears to be normal in PD brain. Free radical generation is thought to be of importance in both HD and FA, via excitotoxicity in HD and abnormal iron handling in FA. The oxidative damage observed in PD may be secondary to the mitochondrial defect. Whatever the cause(s) and sequence of events, respiratory chain deficiencies appear to play an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration. The mitochondrial abnormalities induced may converge on the function of the mitochondrion in apoptosis. This mode of cell death is thought to play an important role in neurodegenerative diseases and it is tempting to speculate that the observed mitochondrial defects in PD, HD and FA result directly in apoptotic cell death, or in the lowering of a cell's threshold to undergo apoptosis. Clarifying the role of mitochondria in pathogenesis may provide opportunities for the development of treatments designed to reverse or prevent neurodegeneration.
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PMID:Mitochondrial involvement in Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, hereditary spastic paraplegia and Friedreich's ataxia. 1008 14

In Parkinson's disease, nigrostriatal denervation leads to an overactivity of the subthalamic nucleus and its target areas, which is responsible of the clinical manifestations of the disease. Because the subthalamic nucleus uses glutamate as neurotransmitter and is innervated by glutamatergic fibers, pharmacological blockade of glutamate transmission might be expected to restore the cascade of neurochemical changes induced by a dopaminergic denervation within the basal ganglia. To test this hypothesis, two types of glutamate antagonists, the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 and the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate (AMPA) receptor antagonist LY293558, were administered systemically, either alone or in combination with L-DOPA, in rats with a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway. The effect of treatment was assessed neurochemically by analyzing at the cellular level the functional activity of basal ganglia output structures and the subthalamic nucleus using the expression levels of the mRNAs coding for glutamic acid decarboxylase and cytochrome oxidase, respectively, as molecular markers of neuronal activity. The present study shows that treatment with glutamate antagonists, and particularly with AMPA antagonists, alone or in combination with L-DOPA, reverses the overactivity of the subthalamic nucleus and its target areas induced by nigrostriatal denervation. These results furnish the neurochemical basis for the potential use of glutamate antagonists as therapeutic agents in Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:Systemic administration of NMDA and AMPA receptor antagonists reverses the neurochemical changes induced by nigrostriatal denervation in basal ganglia. 1038 87

Using a combination of metabolic measurement and retrograde tracing, we show that the neurons in the pedunculopontine nucleus and parafascicular nucleus of the thalamus that project to the subthalamic nucleus are hyperactive after nigrostriatal dopaminergic denervation in rats. In Parkinson's disease, the loss of dopaminergic neurons induces a cascade of functional changes in the basal ganglia circuitry including a hyperactivity of the subthalamic nucleus. This hyperactivity is thought to be due to a diminution of the inhibitory pallidal influence. However, recent studies have suggested that other cerebral structures are involved in the subthalamic neuronal hyperactivity. This study was undertaken to identify these cerebral structures. Neurons projecting to the subthalamic nucleus were identified by retrograde transport of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase, injected into the subthalamic nucleus of rats with 6-hydroxydopamine unilateral lesion of the substantia nigra pars compacta and sham-lesioned animals. Metabolic activity was determined in the same neurons using in situ hybridization for the first subunit of cytochrome oxidase messenger RNA, a metabolic marker, and image analysis. Horseradish peroxidase-labeled neurons were found in the globus pallidus, parafascicular and pedunculopontine nucleus and sometimes in raphe nuclei and the substantia nigra pars compacta. Measurement of metabolic activity was performed for the globus pallidus, the pedunculopontine and parafascicular nuclei. The expression level of the first subunit of cytochrome oxidase messenger RNA in neurons projecting to the subthalamic nucleus was 62% higher in parafascicular neurons and 123% higher in pedunculopontine neurons in 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats, compared to sham-lesioned animals. An increase was also observed in the globus pallidus, but did not reach significance. Our results suggest that hyperactivity of subthalamic neurons could be due, at least in part, to an increase of excitatory input arising from the pedunculopontine and parafascicular nuclei. These data also suggest that the latter structures may play an important role in the physiopathology of Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:Metabolic activity of excitatory parafascicular and pedunculopontine inputs to the subthalamic nucleus in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. 1077 41


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